This was my second cruise. The first cruise was on the Navigator of the Seas. No comparison - Navigator is such a classy ship in comparison, and the experience on Navigator of the Seas wins over Allure of the Seas hands down.

The ship is big all right, but lacks the luster and grandiosity of smaller ships like the Navigator. Staff (with a few exceptions) were not rude, but not outgoing, and seemed to have serious lack of supervision. On the pool deck, I observed several attendants walking around with a towel that was supposed to be used for wiping tables. That's all they did. Walk around hanging onto a towel. Didn't straighten up chairs, didn't wipe tables. I'm a smoker, and had to repeatedly ask to have the ash trays emptied.

The food was another shocker. A cheese platter arrived with saltine crackers with marginal cheese selection and presentation the first night, I decided to try it again the last night, and it appeared that someone had hacked off a chunk of cheddar cheese and slapped it on the plate. Really? They had upgraded from saltines to Ritz or a slightly better type of cracker. Again, no presentation....just cheese and crackers slapped on a plate. The menu options on a nightly basis were ok, and the food was adequate, but not impressive in the least. We were on My Time Dining, and of course had a different set of waiters each night. One night was next to a large group with screaming kids, another night was somewhere that the temperature was way too hot. Food in the Windjammer was just adequate. The lines on the morning of most of our excursions was insane. They were so long that we had to go to the dining room where there were a few things offered. Read more